Plans for 170 homes in Cork City have been appealed to An Coimisiún Pleanála.
Cork City Council gave the green light last month for a new large-scale residential development adjacent to Musgrave Park, which the developers said would ‘rejuvenate’ the local community.
BML Duffy Property Group Limited sought planning permission in June to transform a long-vacant industrial site into a new housing scheme, with the plans including 170 new homes on the former Vita Cortex site, a 1.2-hectare brownfield plot located between the Kinsale Road and Pearse Road.
The plans comprised 158 apartments and 12 townhouse apartments. The homes would be distributed across four blocks, the tallest of which reaching nine storeys. The development also included plans for a crèche, a café and a management office on the ground floor level of the third block, as well as four new retail units on the bottom floor of the fourth apartment building.
Some 514 bicycle spaces were also included in the plans, as well as nine motorcycle spaces and 82 shared car parking spaces.
However, the plans have now been appealed to An Coimisiún Pleanála following more than 30 submissions from local residents and nearby sports clubs.
Among those was Philip Quinn of the Munster branch of the Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU), who said that while the union does not object in principle to much-needed housing, it wished to highlight a potential for conflict between existing operations at Virgin Media Park and the proposed site.
“Our operations include regular fixtures, training seasons, and outdoor music concert events – many of which are inherently noise-generating,” Mr Quinn said.
The old Vita Cortex site, Cork. Picture Dan Linehan
“Both the developers and future residents must be made fully aware of the potential impacts associated with living close to an active sports and events facility.”
Concerns from local residents included apartment height, daylight loss, the potential impact on traffic and environmental fears.
In its planning statement, BML Duffy said the scheme would “rejuvenate this part of the city and deliver a new residential neighbourhood of an appropriate scale and mix of uses that responds to these strategic objectives.”
They added that it “will make a high-quality contribution to the evolving sustainable regeneration of this area of the city at an appropriate density and height, which will strengthen the character of the area and support the existing community.”
The Vita Cortex site, which has been vacant since the foam company ceased operations in 2011, has remained unused for more than a decade and was placed by the city council on the Derelict Sites list in 2017.
The disused building suffered fire damage in the summer of 2022, amid a wider string of vandalism targeting derelict properties across Cork City.
The old Vita Cortex site, Cork. Picture Dan Linehan
The brownfield plot was also the location of one of the longest-running industrial relations protests in the State’s history. In 2011, 23 workers occupied the plant for more than 160 days in a dispute over redundancy payments.
The protest concluded after the workers secured an undisclosed settlement from company owner Jack Ronan, following high-profile support from figures such as Alex Ferguson, Paul McGrath, former President Mary Robinson, philosopher Noam Chomsky, and actor Cillian Murphy.
An Coimisiún Pleanála are due to decide on the case by December 17, 2025.